Early in the morning of December 28, 1954, two trains on the Nickel Plate railroad were involved in a head-on collision just east of Dunkirk, New York. Seventeen crew members were injured, three steam locomotives were badly damaged, cars were damaged, derailed and scattered all over the scene, and a fire broke out. Nickel Plate and Pennsylvania railroad traffic was completely disrupted for a number of days until the wreck site was cleared.